The Experience Strategy Podcast

The Experience Strategy Podcast Hosts: Aransas Savas | Joe Pine, author of The Transformation Economy | Dave Norton, PhD, author of Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers Episode Overview A Wall Street Journal article on Etsy’s AI-powered personalization push gives the hosts a real-world case study in what happens when companies finally stop confusing purchase history with prefer...

W e rarely bring guests onto the show. But when Dave heard Jarrett King’s story — a layoff, a national speed puzzling competition, and a new puzzle company built from scratch in 90 days — he knew the audience needed to hear it. This episode is part entrepreneurship story, part experience strategy case study, and part argument for why the most human solutions might be the ones with no intelligence...

Part four of a four-part mini-series unpacking the frameworks in Dave Norton’s new book, Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers. You can build the right market strategy, identify the right situations, understand your customer’s mode — and still not know if what you built is actually working. Time value is the measurement framework that closes that gap. In this final episode of th...

Part three of a four-part mini-series unpacking the frameworks in Dave Norton’s new book, Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers. Most companies build their entire models around habits and routines. But the number one behavior people exhibit today isn’t a habit or a routine — it’s mode acquisition. People move fluidly between modes all day, they’re fluent in the language of them...

Part two of a four-part mini-series unpacking the frameworks in Dave Norton’s new book, Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers. Every time you segment your target audience by who they are, you limit the number of people who could buy from you. That’s the uncomfortable truth at the center of this episode — and the reason situational markets may be the most practically disruptive f...

The Experience Strategy Podcast | theexperiencestrategist.substack.com Part one of a four-part mini-series unpacking the frameworks in Dave Norton’s new book, Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers. The Stupid/Dumb/Smart/Genius framework has been in use with clients for nearly a decade. It was born in a room in Burbank, in real time, when Joe Pine found himself in the back of a c...

It’s a book launch episode. Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers — Dave Norton’s new book — released yesterday on Amazon. Joe and Aransas have read the galley. This episode covers the why now, the four frameworks at the book’s core, and how companies are meant to actually use it. What’s in This Episode Why Dave felt compelled to write this now. It goes back to 2015 and Digital...

The Experience Strategy Podcast | theexperiencestrategist.substack.com A nurse whose only job was to hold a patient’s hand during a procedure. A debrief with the doctor scheduled before the procedure was even booked. A title accidentally revealed mid-conversation. This episode covers a lot of ground — starting with where healthcare experience strategy stands right now, and ending somewhere that a...

A Wall Street Journal article from June 3, 2026 asked a question that stopped the hosts cold: What is personalized pricing, and why are lawmakers scrambling to ban it? The premise — that companies might start using behavioral data to charge you a price uniquely calibrated to what you’ll pay — prompted an immediate, live Google search and a conversation that spanned economics, loyalty, Kmart’s demi...

Featured article: “ Wellness Tourism Could Top 900 Billion in 2030. Luxury Hotels Are Racing to Keep Up. “ — Forbes A Forbes feature highlighting 12 luxury hotels leading the wellness tourism shift — immersive White Lotus –style programming, longevity-driven design, destination spa experiences — opens the door to one of the most consequential conversations on the show this year. Wellness tourism i...

Featured articles: * “ Death of the Segment: Why Personas Are Killing Personalization “ — SwiftERM * “ Your Personas Are Outdated. It’s Time to Evolve Your Approach .” — Audrey Chee-Read, Principal Analyst, Forrester Every other post on LinkedIn is announcing the death of something. Most of it is alarmist storytelling dressed up as insight. But under the noise, two recent articles — one from Swift...

Featured article: “ I’m Not Doing Laundry on the Clock. I’m Microshifting .” by Eve Upton-Clark, Fast Company , October 7, 2025 Owl Labs reports that 65% of workers are interested in microshifting — what the company calls structured flexibility built from short, nonlinear work blocks matched to energy, duties, and productivity. Joe, Dave, and Aransas take the article apart and put it back together...

Kareem Rahma built Subway Takes into a hit with 2 million Instagram followers, a metro card as a microphone, and a format that runs in seconds. Now he’s walking away from a CNN deal to put his next show Keep the Meter Running on YouTube — because YouTube, in his words, is where the next Bourdain and the next Lena Dunham will come from. In this episode, Joe, Dave, and Aransas dig into what Rahma’s...

For the first time on record, experience-based tenants — spas, gyms, wellness studios, entertainment venues — are outpacing traditional goods retailers in leasing shopping center space, with wellness and fitness leading the charge. Joe Pine, Dave Norton, and Aransas Savas unpack what this shift actually means: it is not just a retail story, it is confirmation that the transformation economy Joe pr...

Two Wall Street Journal articles are making waves in the market research world — one asking whether AI can replace human research participants, and another profiling a teenage-founded startup called Aura that’s already attracted McDonald’s and EY. Dave, Joe, and Aransas bring their combined decades of consumer research experience to the question everyone in insights is quietly asking: is this the...

The Experience Strategy Podcast | substack.theexperiencestrategist.com A post on X went viral — 38,000 reshares , 83 million reads. Written by respected AI voice Matt Schumer, it opens with a gut-punch analogy: think back to February 2020. Most of us weren’t paying attention to a virus spreading overseas. Then in three weeks, everything changed. Schumer’s argument is that we are in a similar “this...

In this special episode of the Experience Strategy Podcast, Joe Pine shares with Dave and Aransas background about the book! To celebrate the release of his new book, The Transformation Economy . The conversation traces the book’s origins from the final two chapters of The Experience Economy , explores why the world is finally ready for this idea, and unpacks key frameworks — including encapsulati...

In this episode of the Experience Strategy Podcast, hosts Aransas Savas, Joe Pine, and Dave Norton discuss the burgeoning field of longevity and transformation. They explore the aspirations of individuals seeking to live longer and healthier lives, the shift in healthcare from a reactive to a proactive approach, and the role of social proof in driving transformation. The conversation also touches...

In this episode of the Experience Strategy podcast, hosts Aransas Savas, Joe Pine, and Dave Norton discuss the recent developments in AI leadership, particularly focusing on Sam Altman’s ‘code red’ declaration regarding OpenAI’s competition with Google. They explore the importance of experience in AI development, the frameworks that should guide AI companies, and the evolving expectations of users...

The conversation explores the evolving perception of wealth and meaning, highlighting a shift towards purpose-driven initiatives among wealthy individuals like Musk and Gates. Taken from the article in the Economist, entitled the Ultra-rich Are Giving Up on Luxury Assets , it discusses how traditional symbols of wealth are losing significance as people seek deeper meaning in their financial pursui...

Two articles caught our attention. The first was in The Hollywood Reporter about a new movie theater concepts with private rooms and high end food in New York. The second was a story about the power of IMAX in the movie industry, per the Wall Street Journal. In this episode, Joe Pine, Aransas Savas, and Dave Norton discuss the evolving landscape of the movie theater experience, particularly in lig...

In a recent WSJ article entitled “ Travis Kelce Is Jumping In to Save Six Flags Just When It Needed It Most ”, the author notes that all theme parks are down, and Six Flags needs a rescue. So, we decided to unpack the why, the how, and the what to do to reenergize theme parks. The conversation goes from Travis’ desire for more thrilling roller coasters to proposing new ideas for amusing people. Th...

The Experience Strategy Podcast is available for free on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Youtube, and most podcast services. Search for us there as well. In this episode of the Experience Strategy Podcast, hosts Aransas Savas, Joe Pine, and Dave Norton discuss an article from the Wall Street Journal about High Point University in North Carolina , which has become a magnet for wealthy students. They explor...

In this episode of the Experience Strategy Podcast, hosts Joe Pine, Dave Norton, and Aransas Savas discuss PwC’s recent report on growth through experience . They explore the evolving definitions of customer experience, emphasizing the importance of trust and meaningful interactions. The conversation delves into PwC’s four dimensions of exceptional experiences: coherence, personalization, engageme...

Joe Pine was recently on a podcast with our friend, Jake Haupert at the Transformational Travel and he wrote about travel in a recent Substack . The team decided to expound on his post. In this episode of the Experience Strategy Podcast, hosts Joe Pine, Dave Norton, and Aransas Savas delve into the concept of the Transformation Economy, exploring how travel can lead to personal transformation. The...